Palm Beach County residents were asked:
Please tell us about an important moment in your life that would help someone understand what it’s like living in your neighborhood.
The stories and micro-narratives they submitted (as part of the We Are Here SenseMaker project) are listed below. Click ZOOM IN to learn more about the community member and how they interpreted their submission. NOTE: Some stories were partially transcribed by volunteers who shortened the narratives and referred to the storytellers in the third person (e.g., “her experience was” instead of “my experience was”).
In 2011, child poverty reached record high levels, with 16.7 million children living in food insecure households, about 35% more than 2007 levels. A 2013 UNICEF report ranked the U.S. as having the second highest relative child poverty rates in the developed world.According to a 2016 study by the Urban Institute, teenagers in low income communities are often forced to join gangs, save school lunches, sell drugs or exchange sexual favors because they cannot afford food.
an important moment in the interviwees life was a time when she was home and there was a fire next door and the whole commu ity came togheter to help the victims rebuild and get back to where they were.
Growing up in the heart of Boynton Beach and a young man was challenging for me. I grew up in a home with no positive male figures and no positive role models. I was raised by a single parent and it was no easy task. My mother did the best she could with the limited resources she had.
School wasn’t for me so I dropped out I don’t know why I made that choice but it must’ve been because I was. Hanging out with the wrong crowd And I was to busy in the streets instead of the books
Two positive, one positive being everyone is a whole, such as being a diversemulticultural community. Another being welcoming and feeling like a family from different races
I grew up in a great neighborhood. I had a lot of family around me and we all stuck together. You would never have known we didn’t have a lot.